Golden Globes Celebrates Diversity in 2017: Globes ‘Is Woke'
"I really want to thank 'Atlanta' and all black folks, for real… for just being alive," said "Atlanta" actor Donald Glover
By Samantha Schnurr and Sarah Glover ••
After beginning the year with a long and ambitious list of priorities, the GOP is lagging far behind its expectations for its policy agenda, NBC News reported. Republicans are pushing to get the American Health Care Act passed in the Senate, which they say is what will allow them to switch focus to tax reform. They also need to address infrastructure, which was a top agenda item for the president. What has dragged on the party’s momentum was the slower-than-anticipated confirmations of President Donald Trump’s nominees, as well as the ongoing controversy over investigations into Russia meddling in last year’s election. Congress has just seven weeks left before the beginning of August, when lawmakers take five weeks off. Then the fall agenda will be filled wth funding the government before the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.
The 2017 Golden Globes boasts one of its most diverse list of winners at its 74th annual awards show.
"Moonlight," a story that chronicles the coming of age of a black man from childhood to adulthood took home the top prize for Best Motion Picture, Drama. The film chronicles a child's struggle "to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami," according to the film's website.
Tracee Ellis Ross dedicated her win for Best Supporting Actress Television Series, Musical or Comedy to "colorful people" and said, "I want you to know that I see you, we see you."
Additional stories representing the African American experience realized Golden Globes success this year such as Viola Davis' emotional portrayal of Rose Maxson, the wife of a sanitation worker, in "Fences." She won for Best Supporting Actress in any Motion Picture while Ellis Ross took home a statue for her work on "Black-ish," as did the TV show "Atlanta" for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy.
"I really want to thank 'Atlanta' and all black folks, for real… for just being alive," said Donald Glover while accepting the Golden Globe for his hit show "Atlanta" in the category of Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy.
"Yo, @goldenglobes is woke!!!"
Comedian Larry Wimore took to Twitter to give the awards show a nod for being "woke" following Ellis Ross' win.
After the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2016, it seems Hollywood is steadily understanding how to celebrate and uplift stars that do not fit into one particular shell.
The diversity of the ceremony wasn't limited to race alone. The members of this year's nominee pool range in age, experience and shape, proving that an award winner is not one size fits all.
Take, for example, the other women in Meryl Streep's Best Actress category. The 67-year-old nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy is up against a fellow legend, 58-year-old Annette Bening, and first-time nominees, 27-year-old Lily Collins and 19-year-old Hailee Steinfeld.
While there are no women of color in that category, they are the majority in the Best Supporting Performance by an Actress category with nods to Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Naomie Harris, as well as Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman. In comparison, the category in 2016 included winner Kate Winslet and nominees Jane Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Mirren and Alicia Vikander.
"At 10:00 every Thursday night...you come into my world and you sit with me, my size, my hue, my age, and you sit and you experience," Davis recently said during her acceptance speech for the Critic's Choice #SeeHer Award. "And I think that's the only power I have as an artist."
That power is one that many stars--and the directors, producers and screenwriters behind their roles--seem to have embraced significantly this year.
For Chrissy Metz, one of the stars of NBC's "This Is Us," has an authentic ability to portray a woman battling her weight not only turned her into a television heroine and is the first woman outside the typical Hollywood sample size range to earn a nomination in the Best Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film category in decades. As the series' creator Dan Fogelman put it, Metz is as easy to root for as she is to write for--perhaps because she embodies a human experience understood by many, yet often glossed over.
Justin Timberlake, left, and Jessica Biel arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Chrissy Teigen, left, and John Legend arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Nina Alu, left, and Iggy Pop arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Blake Lively, left, and Ryan Reynolds arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Amatus Sami-Karim, left, and Mahershala Ali arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Benjamin Millepied, left, and Natalie Portman arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Keith Urban, left, and Nicole Kidman arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Annette Bening, left, and Warren Beatty arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Elsa Pataky, left, and Chris Hemsworth arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Kurt Russell, left, and Goldie Hawn arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Susan Geston, left, and Jeff Bridges arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
Diversity doesn't only come in skin tone or waist measurement. In the age of the ongoing television renaissance, actors are not limited to one particular kind of medium to tell a story--there's network television, cable television and online television. While it took a bit to adapt to the idea of TV on the Internet, it has evolved to not only exist, but excel and the proof is in several of this year's honorees who got their start on the World Wide Web.
Both Rachel Bloom and Issa Rae rose to fame initially on YouTube, where they created and starred in their own content. Now, they're both Golden Globe nominees with successful series shaped by distinct--and at times underrepresented--voices.
"I think black people aren't really used to seeing themselves be the norm, and the default and have these regular human emotions that white people are afforded on every single type of show," Rae told E! News. "So, to just to have relationships and friendships exist in a normalized way is something that hasn't been done in like 20 years."
Similarly, Riz Ahmed, who portrayed a Pakistani-American inmate on HBO's "The Night Of," not only garnered his first Golden Globe nomination but also became the first Pakistani-American actor to earn the nod in recent history. "It was an honour to portray Nas, and through him the untold stories of so many," the actor said in a statement.
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Simone Biles, Anna Kendrick and Sienna Miller
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Sofia Vergara arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Viola Davis arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Actress Tracee Ellis Ross arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards, Jan. 8, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
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Naomi Campbell arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Nicole Kidman arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Issa Rae arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Jonah Hill arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Hailee Steinfeld arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Kerry Washington arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Jessica Biel arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Reese Witherspoon arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Ryan Gosling arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Andrew Garfield arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Jessica Chastain arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Evan Rachel Wood arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Heidi Klum arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Mandy Moore arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Sarah Jessica Parker arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Sunny Pawar arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Anna Kendrick arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Aly Raisman, from left, Simone Biles and Madison Kocian arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Sienna Miller arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Janelle Monae arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Zoe Saldana arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Drew Barrymore arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Carrie Underwood arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Anna Elisabet Eberstein, left, and Hugh Grant arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Simone Biles arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Michelle Williams arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Busy Philipps arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Natalie Portman arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Octavia Spencer arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Amy Adams, left, and Jeremy Renner arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Actress Olivia Culpo attends the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Dax Shepard,left, and Kristen Bell arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Iggy Pop arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Caleb McLaughlin, from left, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, and Gaten Matarazzo, from "Stranger Things," arrive at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Chrissy Metz arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Actor Trevante Rhodes attends the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Giuliana Rancic arrives to the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017.
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Anna Chlumsky arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Actress Olivia Culpo attends the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Actress Yvette Nicole Brown attends the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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(L-R) Miss Golden Globes Sistine Stallone, Miss Golden Globes Scarlet Stallone, and Miss Golden Globes Sophia Stallone attend the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Emily Ratajkowski arrives at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California.
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Simone Biles, Anna Kendrick and Sienna Miller
As the star pinpointed, diversity in Hollywood can only go as far as the material that gets to the top of the pile. "I think we have to choose from a pool that's representative of the country we live in. I think studios need to step up and be aware of the need to make films, not just having actors that represent the population, but writers, directors and crew members that do," director J.J. Abrams told E! News in February.
"I think it's good business," he continued. "I think the movies will get better, the stories will get stronger and audiences will respond bigger and that's good for the bottom line."
